Improving the Performance of Continuous-Variable Measurement-Device-Independent Quantum Key Distribution via a Noiseless Linear Amplifier

Abstract

In the continuous variable measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (CV-MDI-QKD) protocol, both Alice and Bob send quantum states to an untrusted third party, Charlie, for detection through the quantum channel. In this paper, we mainly study the performance of the CV-MDI-QKD system using the noiseless linear amplifier (NLA). The NLA is added to the output of the detector at Charlie’s side. The research results show that NLA can increase the communication distance and secret key rate of the CV-MDI-QKD protocol. Moreover, we find that the more powerful the improvement of the performance with the longer gain of NLA and the optimum gain is given under different conditions.